


Documents from the Praying Mantis Incursion

by rm (arem)



Category: Maru Desu | I Am Maru
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arem/pseuds/rm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Mantisian Empire plans a military operation against the Human-Feline Symbiosis that includes Maru, things do not go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Documents from the Praying Mantis Incursion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [surprise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/surprise/gifts).



> Warnings: Somewhat graphic depiction of violence against insects.

Initial tactical recommendation regarding feline border presence, translated from the Mantisian Threat Display Language  
Lifecycle 7,189,452.3  
Human Year 2013  
Feline date unknown (Feline interest in calendars is limited to appearances on them)

After repeated interception of our scouts by the feline menace known as Maru to its human household patrol area (we are unaware, at this time, of the aliases Maru may use in the feline language, which remains untranslatable to us due to the ongoing loss of the scouts), it is the recommendation of this officer that a full-scale military operation be launched against Maru and the territory he protects. Otherwise, we must be forced to recognize Maru as posing a hard limit on the expansion of the Mantisian Empire while also representing an ongoing threat to our security by preventing regular border patrols by his need to consume our scouts. Mantes of all instars should be recruited for this mission in order to overwhelm the feline menace with our numbers as well as confuse it with the wide-ranging morphologies of our kind.

*

Assessment of feline border presence defensive capabilities, translated from the Mantisian Threat Display Language  
Lifecycle 7,189,452.4  
Human Year 2013  
Feline date unknown (Believed to be a non-archival species, felines understand only Now, Soon Now, and Recently Now)

Scouting for the military offensive against Maru has been completed. Defenses are more significant than we previously realized, but this only emphasizes the need for the Mantisian Empire to take action lest Maru cease holding his line of defensive aggression and begins pushing back into our territories. In addition to Maru’s naturally dangerous features, scouts reporting to us from great distance in order to maintain their bodily integrity report that the feline menace may be aware of our upcoming attack. Either that, or, as many military geniuses are, he is deeply paranoid. In either case, Mantisian scouts report that Maru is moving defenses into place. Significant implementation of highly mobile, paper-based box structures has been observed. Structures provide strategic hiding locations for Maru and also include storage capabilities for weaponry, food supplies, and potential containment of Manitsian hostages.

*

Intelligence report on feline enemy preparedness in border region, translated from the Mantisian Threat Display Language  
Lifecycle 7,189,452.5  
Human Year 2013  
Feline date unknown (Feline awareness of meal availability is now known to be high, suggesting usage of more than the three previously hypothesized relative times)

This command can now report with near certainty that Maru is aware of the oncoming Mantisian attack. In addition to his mobile defenses, with which he practices deployments, hiding and guerilla tactics on a daily basis, an additional operative has been added to the feline-human symbiosis. While the human presence remains content to let Maru handle threats from the Mantisian Empire, likely out of fear, a new feline recruit, termed Hana, is now present on the field of play. Maru has been seen training her at regular intervals.

*

Evaluation of feline war games on border with Mantisian Empire, translated from the Mantisian Threat Display Language  
Lifecycle 7,189,452.6  
Human Year 2013  
Feline date unknown (Current relative times suspected to encompass Sunlight, Not Sunlight, Getting What I Want, Unacceptable Lack of All Feline Pleasures)

Maru is regularly drilling Hana in fortifications and attacks. Hostages from our allies in the Moth Kingdom have been used for target practice. Hana’s accuracy is rapidly increasing, although her ability to consistently execute lethal attacks against our moth brethren remains low. However, this largely seems to be the result of the defensive powder the moths have developed in order to emphasize their repellence to the feline palate. Fatal attacks have not been swift. Mantisian Empire troops should be prepared for disturbing injuries and high levels of pain from the Hana feline as she seems unlikely to be able to perform killing blows. Additionally, her small size compared to that of Maru suggests that she may be more susceptible to our threat displays and that a concentrated attack on her by multiple mantis units may be effective in incapacitating her.

*

Letter from the front, translated from the Mantisian Threat Display Language  
Lifecycle 7,189,452.6  
Human Year 2013  
Feline date unknown (Because holy crap, those things are scary, and I just don’t care)

Dearest Mantibelle,

I apologize for the lack of romance in this missive. I miss your grasping-legs (although your walking-legs are very nice too) and hope to return home from battle intact so that we may mate in a satisfactory way that culminates in your devouring my head. Of course, I worry that may not actually be very nourishing for our future young, considering I was stupid enough to get into this mess in the first place.

Our propaganda posters do not make clear the size of the feline menace. The Maru beast himself is very large, certainly 12 times or more the side of the largest prey I have ever heard of our kind taking down. He could be vanquished, one assumes, if he were slothful, but he is not. Rather, he is hyperalert to all movements and his fast reflexes mean that once he is aware of a single one of our troops in the area he becomes immediately active and dangerous. There is no opportunity for a sneak attack, and it is my belief that we would have to position at least twenty, and certainly as many as fifty, of our kind immediately upon him to have even a prayer of subduing him. Mostly, he seems to find our threat displays entertaining, as if he was engineered specifically to repel and devour our kind.

Hana, the auxiliary feline menace that must be eliminated before she reaches her final and most powerful instar, seems harmless and easily frightened. THIS IS INCORRECT, my Mantibelle, dearest. The Hana feline may be smaller, but she is faster, and fear propels her. Her tactical skills may not yet be as advanced as the Maru feline, but her claws are sharp and highly efficient in the shredding of our troops. The battle area is littered with tibial spines and thoraxes, some of which the feline menaces can be seen snacking on and playing with.

Know Mantibelle, that one way or another, when my head is removed, whether it should be here or in your arms, I shall be thinking of you.

Hugs and Mandibles,

Mantisi

*

Findings of the Mantisian Senate Commission Looking into the Massacre at the Wood Flooring Plains of Maru and Hana, translated from the Mantisian Threat Display Language  
Lifecycle 7,189,453.2  
Human Year 2013  
Feline date unknown (And utterly lacking in relevance)

It is the finding of this Commission that, having been treated for generations of our kind as mere playthings by the Maru feline, that no military recommendations against the Maru-patrolled border should ever have been undertaken. More significant correspondence with the Moth Kingdom would have prevented such a foolhardy exercise, which has not only failed to expand our empire, but has provided additional military training for the Auxiliary Feline Menace Hana. Additionally, the Maru and Hana felines now have a taste for Mantisian blood and may prove to pose significant offensive risk should their human symbiote allow them to explore outside their current fortifications, which we will now view as a hard boundary to our territories in that quadrant.

Any felines scouted in Mantisian territory are to be reported immediately.

Those in our military command responsible for the Massacre at the Wood Flooring Plains of Maru and Hana would be executed for treason, but they were eaten.

We will mourn our fallen comrades with patriotic parades, graduate school theses, and irregularly dusted museum exhibits.


End file.
